


I Know You Feel It Too

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: Firsts, M/M, Rinharu Week, Title sucks, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, basically just cuteness, but it's fluffy and cheered me up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2014-11-20
Packaged: 2018-02-26 09:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2647328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>((Rinharu Week Day 1))</p><p>"...No matter what you were doing, whether it was eating your stupid mackerel or messing with your stupid fringe or glaring at me or just /being/, you always made my chest hurt like hell, a constant reminder of just how damn hard I was in love with you..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Know You Feel It Too

**Author's Note:**

> yay, Rinharu Week :3 Enjoy this fluffy thing that manifested at about 1am last night ^-^
> 
> Prompts used - 'Firsts' and 'a sea of light that spreads endlessly'

“I felt it the first time we touched, a tentative brush of hands that had my heart racing ten times harder than any race ever could. But then, you always had that effect on me…no matter what you were doing, whether it was eating your stupid mackerel or messing with your stupid fringe or glaring at me or just _being_ , you always made my chest hurt like hell, a constant reminder of just how damn hard I was in love with you. I knew, back then, even if you didn’t. I felt it in the way your eyes lingered on my lips, my cheeks, my hands. Your gaze was always the heaviest; I could always feel it, even when I was avoiding you or when you were being an idiot hiding in the pool or hanging with the others. I could always feel you watching me, silent and stoic as usual. I think some of the time I imagined it - you looking at me that is, but I like to think I didn’t.

God, your eyes were beautiful in those moments when I actually had the courage to meet your gaze (which wasn’t often, but were engraved on my eyelids when they did happen) - usually with a glare or a stupid grin that made you turn away with a huff, tips of your ears pink, but hell, it took basically all my self-control to not fucking run over to you and kiss you right then and there, in front of everyone. I tried to stop thinking about you; I goddamn near lost my mind over it. It was consuming me, it was eating away at me at night until all I could see when I closed my eyes was the curve of your stupid ass half-smile and the nearly abnormal colour of your eyes, always watching me, filled with the humour, the trust, the _affection_ that I craved to see there.

It was too much for me to handle, it made me sick to the stomach that I felt this way about you, so wholly and vastly that you didn’t, no, _couldn’t_ even know the half of it. Every spare moment I had was spent with thoughts of you – I overanalysed every little thing you said to me, every lingered gaze and every awkward Makoto-comment that I could. Heck, I even asked _Nagisa_ for help – _now_ you realise how desperate I was?

I’d never felt this way before, not about anyone. Not when Hanamura kissed me that once by the school gates, blushing and embarrassed and hideously awkward, not when my mum tried to set me up with her colleague’s daughter who was really _waaay_ out of my league – never, not once, did my chest constrict the way it did when I was with you. Never once did my whole body practically tremble when you were near my, never once did my cheeks feel so damn warm when you spoke to me or when you looked at me, dedicating 100% of your attention to me, little, insignificant me who stormed into your life and fucked things up.

Which I did – I breezed in like I had a right to be there, that you should all accept me because there was no reason (in my eyes) for you not to. I took your friends, took my place within the group that was so tightly knit that to anyone else, it would have seemed impossible to penetrate it. But I did, in my own stubborn way and I know I caused you anger and that I annoyed you but none of that really mattered to me at all, because you were _you_ and I just couldn’t stop teasing you and arguing with you because I knew that when I did that, you were thinking about it, thinking about _me_ for once, not water, or mackerel or Makoto. You were thinking about me and I could see it in your eyes - the turmoil of emotions that I’d put there myself.

I can’t remember when I first fell in love with you, Haru. I can’t remember the exact moment, or if it was a combination of lots of moments, whether it was a tidal wave of emotion crashing down on me in one go, drowning me, or a blizzard, slow, agonisingly confusing and way too easy to become lost in. All I know is that it was in the way you said my name, soft and strong at the same time, the swell of pride I felt every time your hand slapped the pool wall or you swam a few hundredths of a second faster than me or that stupid aura you had, that spread across classrooms and locker rooms, like some fucking sea of light.

I’d never been in love before, and there I was, just a teenage guy in love with another teenage guy who was probably hot for water. Which was fucking awesome and strange and perfect to me, because we were so alike yet complete opposites all at the same time, and all I could think about when I thought about you was how “opposites attract” and that no matter how different we were personality wise, we complimented each other like pieces of a puzzle, for God’s sake.

Where you were quiet, I was talkative. Where you were subdued, I was hyperactive. At first, it scared me, how different we are. It made me think “hey, maybe this isn’t the guy you’re meant to fall in love with.” But then it occurred to me, lying in bed one night thinking my usual Haru-related thoughts that I didn’t give a fuck either way. You know why? Because I was in love with you, and if I loved you, to me it didn’t matter how different we were.

It’s no different for me now, you know, to the first time realised. My throat still goes dry every time you look at me; I still sometimes stumble over my words when I know you’re listening. My skin always prickles, a flush of heat flooding over it. If anything, it’s more intense than before.

You know why?

Because now I know you feel it too.”

~

If Rin counts correctly, about 30 seconds pass before a response comes from the form huddled up to his side, clinging to his skin like an octopus, a mass of dark hair and pale, lithe limbs.  
  
“Satisfied, I take it?” he murmurs.

“Ah.” Is what he’s greeted with, accompanied by a small nuzzle against his shoulder. Rin smiles softly at the narrowed blue eyes and flushed cheeks that peek out of their home pressed against his skin. “Yes” is muttered quietly and cheeks flush darker. “You tell good stories.” Rin chuckles lightly, giving the raven hair a ruffle. He’s greeted by another scowl, which only softens when a soft kiss is pressed to his temple.

“Only when they’re true.” His voice is soft and smooth and makes his hair stand on end – it’s the last thing Haru hears before he loses himself in the gentle press of Rin’s lips on his own.


End file.
